The Prince of Monaco: Andy Schatz talks up his indie “heist simulator”

We catch up with the indie developer as his game finally begins pre-orders.

Indie gaming fans are all probably aware of the top-down, half-strategy, half-platformer, half-puzzler (yes, that's three halves) Monaco. The game rocketed to widespread attention when an early build won the grand prize at the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Its premise is instantly graspable to those who have been bathed in Hollywood from a young age—there are things to be stolen, and it's up to you and your crack team to pull off the heist. Coupled with a slick retro style and controls that appeared quick to learn, Monaco stole the show—and we've been waiting for it ever since.

Enlarge/ Breaking into the oceanographic museum to steal the evidence. The lit portions of the map are what your character can see.

Pocketwatch Games has shown the game several times since then, notably at a Penny Arcade Expo or two, and there are many gameplay videos available. We know that the game will be available on XBox Live Arcade, Windows, and OS X, but solid information on when it might actually slip out of closed beta and into our hot little hands has been difficult to come by. This is in no small part because lead developer Andy Schatz is absolutely firm about releasing the game when it's done, and not a moment before.

However, things are looking up: Schatz and the Pocketwatch Games crew began taking preorders for Monaco today on the game's website. Ars spent a bit of time talking with Schatz to find out what's been taking so long, and what kind of a crew we might need to take with us when we break into the museum.

Garnering attention

Thanks in no small part to smash indie successes like Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Fez, being an indie game developer these days can be a bit like being an indie rock star. Gaming conventions like PAX put developers in front of a hungry community of gamers, and not all developers appreciate the tremendous amount of attention that a promising game showing can bring. After all, for many indie devs, their games are deeply personal things—the amount of blood, sweat, tears, and self that devs like Jonathan Blow pour into games like Braid is undeniable, and suddenly having your baby released out into the wild can be stressful.

Not so for Andy Schatz. As lead developer, graphic designer, and all-around public relations guy for Monaco, he's as much of the face of the company and the game as anyone could be, and a lot of the publicity focuses on him. "I don't pay attention to the visibility," he replied when I asked about the limelight. He's an enthusiastic guy and I found myself nodding along as he talked, even though he couldn't see me over Skype. "The way I see it, there are only two things that matter: making a fucking awesome game, and building a relationship with your fans and customers." The megawatt spotlight shining on an IGF-winning game like Monaco means more opportunities to connect with the players, and Schatz seems positively energized by this.

"With Monaco, I think I've built a fan base who enjoys being on the journey with me and the rest of the team," he says. He notes that unlike other more reclusive indie developers, the Monaco team has embraced pre-release fame and actively involved its fan community with the game. Fans run forums for Monaco and are even invited to contribute code for bug fixes if they're able. The Pocketwatch crew is in constant contact with the approximately 250 people in the game's closed beta, interacting with them every day, and Schatz says that the community has had a huge effect on the direction the game has taken during its long development cycle. Even some of the game's dialog has been sourced from fans—the French spoken during some segments of the game was contributed entirely by beta players who are native speakers.

Schatz's eight

Though the version available for pre-order and featured in the linked videos is a bit different in appearance from its IGF-winning 2010 form, the game remains at heart a top-down, tile-based, real-time strategy game...sort of. "Real-time strategy" brings forth thoughts of Starcraft, but Monaco isn't like that at all—instead, picture a crime-caper flavored combination of Splinter Cell and Pac-Man. Schatz himself described the game to me as something akin to being able to play the entirety of Hitman from within the game's mini-map.

The game unfolds as a series of heists. Each heist takes place in a different setting and has different main and secondary objectives, but in each case you need to steal something—sometimes, several things. One, two, three, or four players choose their characters from an assortment of eight thieves, each with different special abilities that can be employed to make the mission easier:

The Cleaner, who can sneak-attack guards from the rear with a chloroform-soaked cloth.

The Gentleman, a master of disguise who can wander slowly through the level and calm agitated guards.

The Lookout, who has the ability to see all the guards and traps on the map.

The Locksmith, who can open safes and locked doors faster than any other character.

The Pickpocket, which Schatz described as "a hobo with a monkey"—the monkey can sneak through traps and grab loot without anyone noticing.

The Mole, who has the ability to dig through walls and who can create interesting and inventive solutions to some of the game's traps.

The Hacker, master of computer viruses who can disable cameras and traps.

The Redhead, the seductress, who can charm guards and get them to do her bidding, including making them open otherwise locked doors and preventing them from firing on the rest of your party.

A rogue's gallery—the Cleaner, the Gentleman, the Lookout, the Locksmith, the Pickpocket, the Mole, the Hacker, and the Redhead.

Pocketwatch Games

The ingrained cultural cues behind the different characters are strong. As Schatz was describing the Pickpocket and his pet monkey that sneaks about and steals things, I started laughing and commented that it sounded like he was describing the little Nazi monkey from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Schatz laughed back and said that was exactly what he had in mind; in fact, it was a Capuchin monkey in the movie, and he'd made the little blocky monkey in the game look as much like a Capuchin as possible to reinforce the link.

Some of the characters have been slow to come into focus—the Cleaner, the Redhead, and the Mole were undergoing heavy tweaks even up until a few months ago. Still, Schatz and the testers aren't operating in a vacuum; the list of player-character choices is extensive and touches on all of the heist movie archetypes we've been trained to expect. Plus, the game's cooperative experience means that while the roles are all finely polished, they don't have to be perfectly balanced against each other—players work together in Monaco, and their abilities are meant to complement, not level out a scale. For instance, the Gentleman has the ability to reduce aggression in guards, and can calm a situation down while the Hacker busily disables the level's security cameras and the Pickpocket's monkey snatches coins from under everyone's noses.

Enlarge/ The Hacker's viruses do their thing. Protip: computer viruses are always green.

In between heists, players pick up bits of the story; the missions themselves are told as flashbacks by the Locksmith. In an interesting narrative twist, "cleaning out" missions (that is, fully completing all of a mission's main and bonus objectives) unlocks more missions in an additional parallel campaign, with the same scenarios told from the Pickpocket's perspective. As with two different tellings of the same story by two different people, things are different—map layouts are similar but not identical, objectives are different, and things might unfold in a completely different manner.

This secondary campaign is meant to increase the game's replayability and give completionist players something to shoot for, and the Rashomon-style alternate retelling is a neat hook. Schatz was mum on the plot points in the game, but emphasized that the eight individual player characters each have a distinct personality, and the story element of the game gives players the chance to get closer to them and their world.

The big hit

The missions themselves can be slow methodical sneakfests or fast-paced shotgun romps (emphasis on the shotgun). Schatz likens a typical mission to a rising and falling wave, alternating tension with action and relief as you're spotted and then you evade (or engage and destroy!).

He's quick to point out that Monaco is not a traditional stealth game like Hitman or Thief; while some earlier levels can be "ghosted" (that is, completed without being detected by any guards or cameras), later levels are packed with bad guys and are impossible to get through without being seen. Monaco isn't a stealth game—it's a heist game. Over the two years of development time, Schatz has noted some broad trends. Single-player Monaco runs tend to go more like a traditional stealth game, whereas two-player games are typically the most managed and coordinated, with the players usually working closely together to plan and step through the mechanics of the heist. Four-player games, though, tend to devolve into madness. "In any bank robbery, there's always the loose cannon," he laughs. "It's like, 'OK, who brought the shotgun?' There's always the Leroy Jenkins in the group."

There's no optimal number of players, though, and any player combination can complete any mission. Players playing alone do get four extra lives, though, to make up for not having any backup. The game doesn't force any particular play style, though it does reward some—there are trophies to be earned from ghosting the earlier missions, and others to be earned by killing all of a level's guards or completing a mission without a single death.

Enlarge/ We've been spotted and are taking fire to the face and it looks like it hurts.

Once the players have entered the level, they must make their way to the MacGuffin they're there to steal, avoiding or dealing with guards, civilians, security cameras, pressure plates, locked doors, and other obstacles various and sundry. In keeping with Schatz's description of the game as a series of waves, discovery and violence tends to be sudden and overwhelming, and working your way out of a sudden mess can alternate between nerve-wracking and hilarious. Missions don't tend to take terribly long—perhaps five to ten intense minutes—and though the maps themselves don't change on replay, guard and loot positions are randomized on each run, so memorizing a map won't guarantee success—rather, you'll be in the same position as a would-be thief who's studied the target building's layout but isn't quite sure who's waiting inside.

Schatz points out that the game isn't about twitch reflexes—though they don't hurt, they'll only get you so far. Rather, Monaco is a game that requires improvisation. Being able to adapt and think quickly will carry you much further than simply being able to squeeze the trigger.

Platform-ing

The game will be available for Windows and OS X, and also for XBox Live Arcade; Schatz has tried to make the computer and console experiences as similar as possible. XBox Live Arcade players will be able to play on a single screen ("couch co-op"), but Schatz wants the LAN play to be just as good as the couch play; the game includes built-in voice chat, and your heist buddies' abilities show up on your screen just as they would on a communal TV.

Indeed, even single- and multiplayer leaderboards will be shared across all of the game's platforms. You won't just be able to compare your scores with others on the same system, but rather with all the players on all systems.

The score

Schatz is the public face of Monaco, but he's not the only person developing the game. Level designer and producer Andy Nguyen is in the office several times a week as well, and composer Austin Wintory has been nominated for a Grammy for his work on the Playstation 3 title Journey (Wintory is also scoring the crowdfunded strategy game The Banner Saga, and he's even getting ready to start work on music for a remake of Leisure Suit Larry). However, as the coder and art director, Schatz carries the lion's share of the work on his shoulders, and he has done so for seven days a week for more than two years.

For all its strengths, indie games like Monaco sometimes languish without promotion. Schatz is hoping that his heavy engagement with the most vocal players will pay off in transforming those players into evangelists for the game. Much like how technology companies rely on early adopters to bring their friends and family to adopt a device or software, Schatz hopes that the players currently helping to make Monaco good in prerelease will help drive its success by getting others to try it.

"When the game comes out, the goal is to turn the snowball into an avalanche," he says. "You gotta make sure the snowball is big enough...and you gotta make sure it's packed tightly with folks who love the game. Once that's packed, the snowball will turn into an avalanche."

Lee Hutchinson
Lee is the Senior Technology Editor at Ars and oversees gadget, automotive, IT, and culture content. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX. Emaillee.hutchinson@arstechnica.com//Twitter@Lee_Ars

I hope "couch" multiplayer is included in the PC version as well. In addition to whatever controller support is used for the Xbox.

I have too few good games on Steam that can support 2 or more people in the same room, but I have the ability to easily connect four controllers... the loss of split screen in most racing games has been painful for my friends and I.

I'm glad to see an article for this on Ars, and I hope to see an article when it launches as well. This is a game I've occasionally checked up on since it got the award, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one

I'm very interested in this game. I'm actually friends with Schatz and have talked with him about this game and he's really putting his heart into it. I'm intrigued by what I've heard so far. Keep an eye on this one.